Just Her Type (16 page)

A hand settled on his arm. “All set to go, Macken—” He turned. “I didn't know you were here tonight, Lacey.”

Doc Langhorne's daughter smiled. With her hair pinned up beneath a demure bonnet, she wore a cloak, a wrap too hot for the evening. She leaned toward him, her husky voice a blatant invitation. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, you did. I spoke to your father a few days ago.”

Easing around the pump, she ran her fingers up his chest. “It's so hot, isn't it?”

He smiled. “It must be when you're dressed like that.”

She took his hand and reached across her throat for the clasp holding the cape in place. It dropped to the ground.

Luke drew in a deep breath. Only lace covered her curvaceous body. His gaze moved from her generous breasts to her slender waist and then to her legs encased in silk stockings.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she brushed against him. “It's so hot, Luke,” she whispered. “Help me cool down.”

With a laugh, he grasped her elbows and pulled her arms away. “Find yourself some other sucker.”

“Sucker?” She pouted, and he wondered how she hoped to change his mind with that ridiculous expression. “I thought you wanted me.”

“Why don't you cozy up with Rutherford? I heard he's interested, and he can keep you in a fine fashion.”

“He's too old!” She scowled. “Besides, I'm not staying here forever.”

“I'm not your ticket out.” He shoved her cape in her hands.

Throwing the cloak on the ground, she reached for him again. “I want you.”

“You want a ticket to Albany.” Again he laughed. “Try being more subtle, Lacey. Men don't like to be stalked.”

“You want me to be like Mackenzie? What does the old widow have that I don't?”

“Intelligence enough not to come to school undressed?” suggested an emotionless voice behind Lacey.

Luke swallowed his amusement and smiled at Mackenzie whose honey-brown hair curled enticingly around her taut face. He waited for her next comment.

“You'd better be careful walking home, Lacey,” was all she said.

Lacey slipped her arm through Luke's. “Walk with me?”

“No thanks.” He picked up her cloak and dropped it over her shoulders. “If you want company, stop at Stub's. The girls there will be glad to show you what to do, although it appears you know how to be a whore.”

“Luke,” cautioned Mackenzie.

“Yes,” seconded Lacey, “listen to your boss. She's smarter than you.”

“Just intimidated by this town's need for your father's services,” Luke replied, “but Bentonville won't be held captive to you and your father much longer, Miss Langhorne.”

“What do you mean?”

“A friend of mine has been looking for a place to set up his practice. I wrote him, and, before fall, Bentonville will have a second doctor.”

Lacey's face grew long with horror. “You didn't! Father—I mean, I—” She spun toward the street. “I'll see you get what you deserve for this, Luke Bradfield!”

“As long as it's not you,” he drawled. He smiled at Mackenzie. “What did I do to deserve that?”

“I could give you a list,” she said, her voice still strained.

He put his arm around her shoulders. “I'm sure you could.” As they walked toward the street, he looked back over his shoulder.

“What is it?”

“I thought I saw someone, but it's just shadows.”

Mackenzie laughed. “Probably someone heading home after the exercises. You don't have to worry, Luke. No one saw you turn down Lacey's offer.”

“But you.” He caressed her cheek again. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

“I wasn't sure you wanted to be rescued.”

Even in the dim light, his eyes burned like twin flames. “Be sure, sweetheart. I don't want her.” He paused as Douglas raced past them and up the steps of the print shop.

“Slow down!” called Mackenzie.

Luke put his hand on her face and turned it back toward him. “Why should he, when you scurry around like that all the time? I'll bet you were like him when you were his age.”

“I was.” She smiled. “I was worse actually. Poking my nose into everything and wanting to know about everything. I think Pa despaired of my ever acting like a girl.”

“Until he arranged for you to marry?”

Her smile disappeared. “Yes.”

“How old were you?”

“Sixteen,” she whispered.

His finger caressed her cheek. “You were a little girl then. Now you're a woman, Mackenzie, and it's my job to remind you of how wondrous you are in a man's arms, sweetheart.”

Easily he found her mouth. As he pressed his arm against her back, his lips spiraled along her neck, each touch a spark as bright as the stars overhead.

With a smile, he put his arm around her shoulders and led her to the outside staircase. She listened to the beat of his heart beneath her ear. She stared at the stairs. She had been a virgin on her wedding night, and Cameron had been the only man she had ever been with.

“What's wrong?” Luke whispered. “Suddenly you are as stiff as you were the first moment I saw you in the shop.”

“I just—I want …”

Facing her as she stood two steps above him, he raised her fingers to his lips. “Be honest with me tonight.”

“I want to please you.”

“You will, for you already do.”

“It's just that …”

“Mackenzie?” At her name, she was caught by his gaze. He kissed her with swift fire. “Don't think of the past. Tonight isn't a part of that.”

“I want to forget the past.”

“Is that why—?”

“No. Tonight, I want to make new memories.” She put her fingers to his lips, then curled her hand around his nape. He grasped her by the waist. Instead of climbing the steps to stand beside her, he pulled her against him. Leaning forward, she pressed her mouth over his.

Slowly he took each step, his body brushing against her, the kiss deepening. Slipping her hands beneath his shirt, she stroked the rough silk of his skin.

“If we don't go in now,” he murmured, “I shall make love with you here. You're making me insane, sweetheart.”

“Then we shall go inside.” She laughed. “I wouldn't want to be to blame for your odd ways.”

She took his hand, leading him up the uneven steps. Rain and sunlight had warped them. When they stood in the shadows under the eaves, she reached into her pocket for the key.

“Stop it!” she ordered as he kissed her neck. “How can I open the door if you keep interrupting me?”

Whirling her to face him, he whispered, “My love, I'm intrigued with the idea of sneaking in like this. It adds a decidedly illicit air to this tryst.”

The key clicked. When she held aside the door, he led her inside. He relocked the door before lighting a candle. Watching as she closed the one leading into the other room, he teased, “Are you locking out our chaperone tonight?”

“Don't worry about Douglas. He sleeps as heavily as his father. Oh …” She pressed her fingers to her lips.

His fingertip brought her chin up. “Sweetheart, Cameron is a part of your past. He is what was. I want to be what is.” Taking her hand, he held it over her heart. “There have been others in your heart before me. I ask only that you let me be with you tonight.”

“I want you in my heart, Luke.” She paused, then asked, “Do you have a place in your heart for me?”

“You sound scared to ask that.” He undid her bonnet and tossed it aside. As his fingers pulled pins from her loose hair, he whispered, “It's shocking to think of Mackenzie Smith McCraven being frightened by anything.”

“The idea of loving you and not being loved in return is horrifying!” When he bent to kiss her, she put her hands around his shoulders. His lips caressed her neck, leaving her moaning with the hunger to touch him.

“Did that feel like the kiss of a man who loves you?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you asking?”

“Because I know how soon you are leaving Bentonville.”

“I love you in this time and in this place.” He ran a single fingertip along her lip. “What tomorrow brings I can't know, so think only of this night's pleasures.”

“Yes.” More than she had ever wanted anything, she wanted Luke's love. She had it for tonight, for tomorrow, for the days until he left.

She sat on the bed and tugged on his hands to bring him next to her. With a laugh, he pushed aside her skirts to undo the buttons on her high-topped shoes. His gaze burned into her as he drew them off. As his fingers slipped along her leg to find the tops of her stockings, she closed her eyes and clutched his shoulders. A ripple of delight sought the deepest crevices of her body.

With a laugh, he threw her stockings into the shadows. He kicked off his boots and brought her to her feet. When she reached for the buttons of his shirt, he chuckled again and spun her so her back was to him. He undid the pearl buttons along her back. When her dress began to droop over her chemise, she held it in place.

He slipped his hand past the open back to wrap an arm around her waist. Pulling her to him, he pushed the sleeves down her arms. When the gown dropped to the floor, he undid the single button at the waist of her petticoat and let it fall atop her dress. Only then did he let her turn to face him.

Her breath became shallow as his gaze raked her. His lips held her prisoner as he drew her to the lush bed. She knelt on it and unbuttoned his shirt. Beneath her fingertips, his heartbeat surged to the speed of hers. She lowered the shirt down his arms, brushing against him.

“You're so perfect,” he murmured.

“Me?”

He chuckled. “You never thought I'd say that, did you?”

“I never thought I would say that I love you.”

He moved to kiss her, but, sitting back on her heels, she smiled and lowered the strap of her chemise down her arm in a slow, sensuous motion. When it hung near her elbow, she stared at him as she reached for the other strap. The heat of his gaze seared her bare skin as he sat beside her. When he put his mouth against the skin which yearned for his touch, she moaned.

His tongue sought the downy shadows between her breasts as he stroked her hip. With his knee between her thighs, his denim-clad legs teased her with pleasure. Suddenly he hooked his fingers in her chemise and jerked it aside, tossing the bit of lace and lawn away. His smile revealed, far better than any words, his delight.

He stood and stripped off his own clothes as eagerly as he had hers. A hint of a smile tilted her lips as she admired his naked body. When she held out her arms, he laughed and dumped her backward onto the bed. All thoughts were swept aside as his tongue found the slippery secrets in her mouth.

He pressed her into the thick mattress. She gasped as he held her beneath him. Her legs entwined with his, keeping him tight against her. When he moved to kiss her breast, she arched, craving him against every inch of her. The longing became a void which tingled with her need.

Her fingers boldly explored him. As his breath fanned her passion, she drew his mouth back to hers. She gasped against it as his hand sought, along her legs, to find the fire he had rekindled.

Another gasp exploded from her lips as he brought them together and moved with her. Each breath, each movement, each heartbeat accelerated the ecstasy until she could tolerate no more. Everything became the fire. Never again could she be totally separate from him. No matter how far he was from her, no matter how close.

Mackenzie smiled as she stroked Luke's chest. When he laughed, she forced her eyes open. “What's wrong? Are you ticklish?”

Luke leaned over her and smiled. “I was remembering the conversation we had the first morning I was here.”

“You got angry because I told you to get some decent clothes.”

His smile became a leer. “Maybe that's how I acted, but I was thinking how wonderful it would be to make love with you.”

“Were you?”

“I think I convinced myself.”

Drawing his lips toward hers, she whispered, “What did you convince yourself about?”

“That I want to make love with you again and again and again …” His words vanished against her lips as the enchantment swirled around them once more.

Safe in his love, she let him lure her away from the fear that waited beyond her bedroom. She did not want to think of those bitter, powerful forces which would be determined to destroy the perfection she had discovered with Luke.

Not tonight. Not as long as she could remain in his arms … until he left Bentonville. With her heart.

TWELVE

Zared Malone burst into the newspaper office just as Mackenzie was ready to quit for the day. Tripping over the uneven floorboards, the telegraph operator crashed through the half-door.

Luke caught him. “Whoa, friend.”

Mackenzie smiled at the tall man whose basset-hound face was wrinkled with a grin. “What is it, Zared?”

“Jes' came 'cross the wire. Statehood's been ratified! Wyoming is the forty-fourth state in these United States!”

“Statehood? Yippee!” shouted Douglas as he raced into the shop. “Saw you running along the street and figured it was news!”

“Good news!” returned the telegraph operator.

“The best.” Spinning, Douglas caught Mackenzie's ink-blackened hands. “We did it, Ma! We're a state!”

She glanced at Luke, and her heart twisted. Now that Wyoming was a state, when would he would be leaving?

“That we are, and they can't keep women from having the right to vote here.” She forced a laugh. “You men had your chance to silence us, but we refused to be silenced.”

Luke shook Douglas's hand. “If all the women in Wyoming are like you, Mackenzie, not even an army could silence you.”

She listened to Douglas's excited talk. So many things had been planned for the statehood celebration, races and pageants and a potluck dinner. She could think only of Luke's leaving. Sorrow clogged her throat. Feeling her smile waver, she compressed her lips. All her efforts were in vain.